Young adults get a job, second chance at school

Oct. 11, 2013

Updated 3:40 p.m.

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David Maldonado of Stanton, 18, places trash collected at a storm channel in Westminster during a clean up by Orange County Conservation Corps. Orange County Public Works is starting a program called Adopt A Channel, which allows businesses such as Disneyland to help clean up storm channels to prevent pollution going into the ocean. KEVIN LARA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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An Orange County Conservation Corps worker paints over graffiti in a storm channel going through Cerritos Avenue in Anaheim. Orange County Public Works is starting a program called Adopt A Channel, which allows businesses to help clean up storm channels to prevent pollution going into the ocean. Disneyland has been running a pilot program, hiring the OC Conservation Corps to clean up storm drains near Disney. KEVIN LARA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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David Maldonado of Stanton, 18, left, picks up trash with Sonny Tovar of Fullerton at a storm channel in Westminster during a clean up by Orange County Conservation Corps. Orange County Public Works is starting a program called Adopt A Channel, which allows businesses such as Disneyland to help clean up storm channels to prevent pollution going into the ocean. KEVIN LARA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Stephanie Mendoza dropped out of school at 16 after giving birth to her daughter.

She didn’t plan on going back.

Then a friend told Mendoza, now 24, about the Orange County Conservation Corps, a nonprofit group in Fullerton that provides an education and a job to adults, ages 18 to 25, who are high school dropouts.

Corps members can finish their high school education and receive a diploma while getting minimum wage to work on a variety of cleanup projects throughout the county.

“I was looking for a job and found out that they could help me with my school,” said Mendoza, who lives in Anaheim. “What other programs can provide school and a job for you?”

Mendoza has been a corps member since February and been involved in about a half-dozen work projects. She plans to earn her diploma in April and hopes to become a chef.

Founded in 1993 as part of the Anaheim anti-gang task force, the Orange County Conservation Corps is the only conservation corps in the county and one of 13 in the state.

Corps members participate in mainly conservation-related projects that include landscaping, weed control and debris removal in flood-control channels and along trails. They remove graffiti and paint playground equipment.

The Conservation Corps in May partnered with the Disneyland Resort on the Adopt-A-Channel project, aimed at preventing trash from making its way into the ocean; Disney gave $50,000 to the corps to help.

In 2012, the Conservation Corps participated in the Aliso Creek Restoration project, and now the corps is involved is a 42-acre restoration project in San Juan Capistrano.

Most corps members enroll voluntarily, said CEO Katharyn Muniz-Bandoni. Some are coming out of the criminal justice system and ordered to enter the program as terms of their probation.

Nearly 75 percent read at a sixth-grade level when they enroll. Their stays in the program vary, depending on where they are scholastically.

“What we do is go back and address that basic need,” said Frank Zepeda, the school’s education director. “We have really gifted kids that just made bad choices.”

Earlier this month, the Conservation Corps held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the opening of its Walnut Avenue facility. The Conservation Corps was on Raymond Avenue in Fullerton before a $575,000 state grant helped it buy an improved building on Walnut. Currently, 118 young adults are enrolled.

In June, 58 corps members made up the inaugural graduating class in the new building.

The nonprofit group is funded through grants, donations and by fees charged for the work it completes.

“Our challenge is to get these kids educated, by helping them maintain themselves and teach them responsibility,” said Henry Barbosa, the Conservation Corps board president.

Rhett Tipones, 20, of Anaheim started with the program in September. He heard about it from his cousin.

Tipones is working on the habitat-restoration project in San Juan Capistrano.

“I was confused and didn’t know where to go,” said Tipones, who dropped out of Bolsa Grande High School. “My cousin said if you want to work and earn your diploma, this is the perfect place to come.”

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